The International Olympic Committee said Sunday that postponing the 2020 Olympics is one of its options as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, but that cancellation of the Tokyo showpiece was “not on the agenda”.
The IOC has faced strong pressure to push back the Games, scheduled from July 24 to August 9, from sporting federations and athletes worried about the health risk as the COVID-19 global death tally went past 13,000 on Sunday.
IOC president Thomas Bach said a decision on when the Games take place would be made “within the next four weeks”.
“Human lives take precedence over everything, including the staging of the Games,” Bach wrote in an open letter to athletes.
“We have, as indicated before, been thinking in different scenarios and are adapting them almost day by day.
“A final decision about the date of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 now would still be premature,” he said.
Bach explained that the IOC was discussing its options with health authorities and stakeholders.
“We are confident that we will have finalised these discussions within the next four weeks.”
He made clear that there would a Games in Tokyo at some point.
“Cancellation would not solve any problem and would help nobody,” Bach said. “Therefore it is not on our agenda.”
THUMBS DOWN
The idea of holding the Games on schedule has drawn a swelling chorus of objections.
On Sunday, nine-time Olympic track and field champion Carl Lewis, as well as the head of French athletics added their voices to the US and French swimming federations, the US and Spanish athletics federations, the Norwegian Olympic Committee and past and current athletes.
Sprinter and long jumper Lewis, who won gold at four different Olympics, told Houston television station KRIV that he backed calls for postponement.
“I just think it’s really difficult for an athlete to prepare, to train, to keep their motivation if there’s complete uncertainty. That’s the hardest thing,” he said.
“I think a more comfortable situation would be two years and put it in the Olympic year with the Winter Olympics (Beijing 2022) and then make it kind of a celebratory Olympic year.”
CANADA WON’T SEND
ATHLETES TO 2020 GAMES
In Montreal, Canadian Olympic officials on Sunday urged postponement of the Tokyo Games, saying that in view of the coronavirus pandemic they won’t send a team in the summer of 2020.
“The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC), backed by their Athletes’ Commissions, National Sports Organizations and the Government of Canada, have made the difficult decision to not send Canadian teams to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2020,” the COC said in a statement that ratchets up the pressure on the International Olympic Committee to postpone the Games scheduled to start on July 24.
The IOC has come under increasing pressure to push back the games from sporting federations and athletes worried about the health risks as the COVID-19 global death tally went past 13,000 on Sunday.
IOC president Thomas Bach said a decision on when the Games would take place would be made “within the next four weeks.”
Canadian Olympic and Paralympic authorities, however, said they wouldn’t wait that long, urging the IOC to postpone the Games for one year while offering “our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring. (AFP)